Category Archives: church family

In 1910, a baby girl named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in Albania. As a teenager she felt called to ministry. She did her training in Ireland and India. One day she approached her superiors and said, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” Her superiors said, “You can’t build an orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can’t do anything.” Agnes smiled and said, “I know. But with God and three pennies I can do anything.” For fifty years, Agnes worked among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. In 1979, Agnes, known to the rest of the world as Mother Teresa, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

How does such a diminutive woman become one of the most recognizable and most revered women in the world? How does a woman with three pennies end up inspiring people to give billions of dollars to charity?

Never underestimate someone with a God-given dream!

Pastor Steve

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

“Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.”

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

“I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

“I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?”

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been encouraging people to give online or visit our giving kiosk at our welcome center and I wanted to THANK YOU for taking this important step. I hope you’ll see that online giving is safe and easy, and a great way to be intentional about being generous.

1. He’s trying his best
You may not believe it. You may think he’s just throwing things together, but he isn’t. The results may not be what want, but I’ve never met a pastor yet who didn’t want to succeed. He’s preaching the best sermons he can come up with, empowering the best volunteers he can find, and doing whatever he can to try and get you excited about your church. Whatever is bothering you about your church, trust me, he’s more frustrated than you are.

2. He works harder than you think he does
You may work more hours than he does, but you’re not working harder. His mind never shuts off. He’s planning sermons, making phone calls, and doing visits. He’s always on call, he’s counseling, providing care, and being a husband and a dad. And every time he gets ready to finally take a break his phone rings with a call from somebody in the church. The emotional strain of pastoring wears him out.

3. He’s rarely 100% confident
He works really hard to come across as confident, but most of the time when he is pitching a new idea or casting vision, he’s only kind of sure. He hopes it works, he hopes it was God speaking and not his head, but he’s learned that waiting to be 100% confident will never come when you are working for God.

4. He has an ego
I’ve never met a great pastor yet, who doesn’t have a little bit of an ego. He has to. When he walks into a church that hasn’t grown under the last 5 pastors, there has to be a part of him that believes he can do something the others couldn’t. After enough people tell him “They aren’t getting fed anymore” he has to have something inside that believes he is a great speaker. Some pastors can be egotistical maniacs, but every great pastor has to have a little ego in them.

5. He’s worried you’re going to leave
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been at the church for 20 years, pastors feel like you are just one conflict away from trying another church. He probably shouldn’t be so defensive, but he has seen too many people walk out the door over small, silly things. The feeling of disappointment when someone leaves his church is impossible to explain to someone who has never experienced it, especially someone who is leaving.

6. He takes things personally
Even when you preface your statement with “Don’t take this personally, but…” I know in your mind it’s just a church, or it’s just a service, or it’s just a sermon, etc. But to him it’s his life, calling, and identity. When you say you don’t like the music, or that you’re leaving because no one has befriended you, he takes it personally because you’re talking about his family. It would be like if someone said to you, “I really love you and want to still hang out with you, but I don’t want to hang out at your house anymore because your kids are crazy. Don’t take that personally because it’s your kids not you, but we’ll have to hang out somewhere other than your house.” That’s what it feels like.

7. You get on his nerves sometimes
Don’t take this personally, but you can be annoying sometimes. You probably don’t realize how fickle, or temperamental you are, but when you want to meet to talk about something “really important” and you tell him that you’re frustrated because your daughter didn’t get a solo in the Christmas play, it’s annoying. Sometimes it can feel like the loudest people are the least involved, and that’s even worse. Which leads us to the next thing you need to know…

8. Your encouragement matters (especially Monday-Saturday)
You will never know how much your encouragement lifts his spirits, especially during the week. While your encouragement of his sermon on Sunday is nice, sometimes it can seem less genuine, but when he get’s encouragement during the week he feels like you really care, and during your busy day you were thinking good things about him.

9. He would take a bullet for you
He would take a bullet for you, even if you wouldn’t take one for him. He has a burden for you because God gave it to him. He prays for you, he cares about you, and he would do anything he could to make sure that you know God. There are times when you feel like maybe your pastor doesn’t care about you, but it’s not true; he does. He may not get to speak to you or he may miss a visit sometimes, but if he didn’t care about you he wouldn’t be your pastor.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: – 2 Timothy 3:16 (King James Version)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, – 2 Timothy 3:16 (New International Version)

The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. – 2 Timothy 3:16 (Living Bible)

There are so many versions of the Bible …..So?LITERAL MIDDLE FREE

KJV/RSV/YONGS/NASV NIV/NAB/GNB/NEB JB/AMPLIFIED/LIVING

A FIVE FINGER WAY TO GET A GRIP ON THE BIBLE.

1. READ IT. – Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (NIV)

2. HEAR IT. – So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV)

4. MEMORIZE IT. – you are a letter from Christ, written by us. It is not a letter written with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not one carved on stone, but in human hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:3

5. MEDITATE ON IT. – Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8 – (NIV)

So this year, as you read God’s Word ask 3 questions1. What did it mean back then?

This week has been a very emotional week for those who knew our friend Leah.

The first time I remember seeing Leah was at her graduation from Prescott High School in 2004 along with my daughter Natascha and many other friends Leah went to school with.

We that knew them can remember this beutiful couple together; Leah’s beautiful smile and Pat’s amazing sense of humor made the room of people laugh.

The years we have known Leah and Pat have been an amazing gift to all of us.

Church, Picnics, softball, their wedding day, serious heavy talks and fun talks filled with laughter, the dedication of their son Asher and others too many to mention here.

But one of the most meaningful and touching times I have seen Pat and Leah together was yesterday afternoon. After I had prayer with this young couple in Leah’s hospital room at Mayo Clinic, Pat did something that I have watched him do for years as he faithfully stood by Leah in numerous hospital beds.

Pat reached into his pocket and pulled out some chap stick and soothed his wife’s chapped lips for her….Then one last time I watched Pat lean over the wires, tubes and respirators and kiss Leah on the cheek.

I will never forget that moment. The moment of a husband caring for his wife to the very end.

“thank you for showing us what it is to stay faithful and how to love.”